Editor’s note: We’re delighted to welcome two new voices to ILoveOV. The sisters behind this column will be dropping in on local restaurants throughout the year and reporting back, one table at a time. This is their first review, and we expect many more to follow. If there’s a spot you’d like them to visit, let us know.
Oro Valley’s Speakeasy
By B&B Sisters
Good food isn’t hard to find in Oro Valley. Cabali is. And it’s absolutely worth seeking out.
You’ll find it nestled behind the Landing, next to Enterprise Rental, down a sidewalk and through a flower-bedecked door. (Look for the winding twigs to let yourself in.)
Let your eyes adjust as you enter this small, intimate, Polynesian-style bar and restaurant. The room wraps around a circular bar crowned by a huge tiki centerpiece tangled in tentacles. You can settle in at the bar, tuck into a corner, or take a seat in the submarine room and watch sea life drift past. And at the custom barrel tables, you might get the feeling someone’s looking over your shoulder.
Someone is. Owner Doug Finical collects tiki mugs, though “collects” hardly covers it. He has more than 1,000 of them, and only some, a few hundred, are on display at any time. We settled in beneath two Elvis mugs and toasted them with a perfect Mai Tai and a smoky Desert Comber. The bartender clearly knows her way around this eclectic, perfectly themed menu. There’s even a documentary about it all: “Cabali and the Tiki Mug Obsession.”
Happily, the chef is just as obsessed with good food. In keeping with the theme, seafood gets top billing: beautiful ahi wonton tacos, shrimp cocktail with a piquant house-made sauce, and big, spicy coconut shrimp in a chili pine sauce. Landlubbers, don’t skip the Spam sliders. You’ll gain a whole new respect for Spam, pan-seared and served on a sweet Hawaiian roll with a side of tropical coleslaw. The Coco Nido wings are elevated and gooey under a luxe coconut rum glaze, the kind of thing that has you setting down the fork and licking your fingers.
One more trick: you can order anything off the Landing’s menu, and your server will bring it over through the connected kitchen.
Cabali
8195 N. Oracle Road, Oro Valley, AZ 85704
Hours: Closed Monday. Tuesday and Wednesday, 4 to 10 p.m.; Thursday and Friday, 4 p.m. to midnight. Saturday 1 p.m. to midnight. Sunday 1 to 10 p.m.
Online Tour
Reservations recommended. Book online at cabalitikibar.com.
Available for parties and group rentals.
